Designing with Trees and Their Bark

This is a rare topic. Tree bark. How often have you over looked it, much less thought about it?

Arctostaphylos coloradoensis
Item # 21549 		Arctostaphylos coloradoensis
Hybrid Manzanita

each $9.99
3 or more $9.79
Jasminum nudiflorum
Item # 59607 		Jasminum nudiflorum
Weeping Winter Jasmine

each $8.99
3 or more $8.79

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“Forests are sanctuaries…I feel at one with the trees, more comfortable among hundreds of them than in a group of people.”

John Sexton, “Listen to the Trees” ”...after awhile I’m pale with longing for their thick bodies ruckled with lichen.” Mary Oliver, from the poem “Black Oaks”

This is a rare topic. Tree bark. How often have you over looked t, much less thought about it? But just as hardscaping (the pathways and walls, the brick and flagstone) is important in a garden, so are the trees. Both elements provide the foundation of ny landscape. They are what everything else is placed around and if you plan ahead you can design a garden resplendent with different kinds of bark—all year around.

“We rarely think about the bark of trees,” Jeff Clark, our assistant nursery manager said. “But there are some barks with amazing colors and textures.”

In developing a handout for fall and winter interest, Clark listed any trees and shrubs that really stand out in the winter landscape. “When the branches are bare, that’s when you can eally see the bark,” he said, and easily listed the Quaking Aspen or a smooth silvery bark and Juniperus deppeana ‘Alligator Juniper’ for a puckery bark.

Yes, here in Santa Fe we’ve gotten used to the pinon and its interesting branching habits. But with so many dying now this might be the time to consider replacing the pinon with trees that are interesting for their bark.

Smooth, hairy, peely, cracked, flaky, ridged, spiked—bark comes in all textures, and following are only a few trees and shrubs that be can recommend for their bark interest.

Deciduous:

  • Cercis canadensis ‘Red Bud’—Dark red-black bark and fanned branching.
  • Koelreuteria paniculata ‘Golden Rain Tree’—furrowed bark
  • Platanus acerifolia ‘Planetree—white, peely, smooth bark
  • Acer species ‘maples’—from green and red to flakey and furrowed

Conifers:

  • Pinus bungeana ‘Lace Bark Pine’—a fine lacy texture
  • Scotch Pine—scaly
  • Ponderosa—scaly
  • Sequoiadendron ‘Redwood’—peely
  • Arizona Cypress—peely
  • Pinus leucodermis ‘Bosnian Pine’—gray bark

Shrubs:

  • Arctistaphylos species Manzanita—reddish, smooth bark
  • Jasminum fruticans ‘Hardy Jasmine’—green, broom-like bark

In a book titled “Tree Bark” by Hugues Vaucher (Timber Press, 003), hundreds of photos depict trees and their bark from around the world. We may be limited here in Santa Fe to what we can grow, but once you start thinking about the colors and textures that are available to us, you’ll develop a whole new perspective for designing your landscape.